Great Blue Heron

Description

The Great Blue Heron is a large wading bird, amongst the largest herons and egrets, standing at an average of 4’ 6” in height. Notable features include slaty flight feathers, red-brown thighs, and a paired red-brown and black stripe up the flanks; the neck is rusty-gray, with black and white streaking down the front; the head is paler, with a nearly white face, and a pair of black plumes running from just above the eye to the back of the head. The feathers on the lower neck are long and plume-like; it also has plumes on the lower back at the start of the breeding season. The bill is dull yellowish, becoming orange briefly at the start of the breeding season, and the lower legs gray, also becoming orangey at the start of the breeding season. Immature birds are duller in color, with a dull blackish-gray crown, and the flank pattern only weakly defined; they have no plumes, and the bill is dull gray-yellow.

Habitat & Range

The Great Blue Heron is found throughout the Blessed Isle and the Threshold coast of the Inner Sea .

The Great Blue Heron can adapt to almost any wetland habitat in its range. They may be found in numbers in fresh and saltwater marshes, mangrove swamps, flooded meadows, lake edges, or shorelines. They are quite adaptable and may be seen in areas of human habitation as long as they hold bodies of water bearing fish. Great Blue Herons rarely venture far from bodies of water but are occasionally seen flying over upland areas. They usually nest in trees or bushes near water's edge, often on island (which minimizes the potential for predation) or partially isolated spots.

Diet

The primary food for Great Blue Heron is small fish, though it is also known to opportunistically feed on a wide range of shrimp, crabs, aquatic insects, rodents and other small mammals, amphibians, reptiles, and small birds. Herons locate their food by sight and usually swallow it whole. Herons have been known to choke on prey that is too large. Individuals usually forage while standing in water along the shoreline, though their height allows them to delve into deeper waters than most other wading birds.

Cultural Significance

The Great Blue Heron is a symbol of the Resplendent Water month in Dynastic Fashions.

Though a blue bird of rivers seems more in line with the aspects of air or water, some Immaculate adherents hold it in high esteem as an example of the path taught by the Immaculate Dragon Hesiesh... the heron waits with patience, moving slowly, and only when the moment is truly right does it strike, with intense speed and fury to take and consume whole its chosen prey.